Comments on: Financial Times 13,596 / Gaff

By: Hellathwen

Hellathwen — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:36:15 +0000

This puzzle is indeed Gaff’s first puzzle for the FT. He is known under other pseudonyms elsewhere and I am delighted to see his work appear in a daily for the first time. He has been a regular compiler for me as an editor for some years. This is an auspicious debut.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:19:57 +0000

What about GAFF = G(ozo) + A(lberich) + F(alcon) + F(limsy)?

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:30:58 +0000

TokyoColin

Thanks for your research.

This question of attribution of the well-known quote came up in a speech by a Muslim speaker at the inauguration of an Islamic book centre in Madras.

I now recall that the speaker mentioned Kahlil Gibran’s name.

JFK was a popular US President with Indian masses. This quote is often cited by debaters in schools and colleges, always mentioning the President’s name.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:42:44 +0000

As indicated in the blog and comments, I think most solvers would have got the quote without working out the long anagram. That was true in my case also. I had the advantage that, when the “fifty years ago” reference was given, I could say “I should remember that – just about”. Then remembered press articles about it in recent days and the quote went in tho, again like some others I’d ‘but’ at first for the second ‘ask’. It was a very impressive achievement by Gaff to put the anagram together which itself included some appropriate wording. I guess this took a very long time. It would be very difficult to clue a long answer like this other than by an anagram, tho for the solver I think that, in such cases, it’s more used to verify the correct answer at the end rather than to get the answer by manipulating the letters.

By: TokyoColin

TokyoColin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:42:25 +0000

To Rishi@10. A quick google search brings up a variety of purported sources for that quote. A Dr. Javeed Nayeem in Mysore attributes it to Kahlil Gibran, while another source identifies Cicero as the originator. More definitively, Oliver Wendell Homes is recorded as saying “Recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return” in an 1884 Memorial Day speech.

By: TokyoColin

TokyoColin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:35:00 +0000

Thank you Smiffy. Doh, so obvious now.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:57:48 +0000

I recently heard someone say that the famous quotation attributed to JFK is actually not his own but that he was only quoting (or paraphrasing) someone else.

This was in a public speech by an eminent Tamil scholar. I am sorry that I don’t remember the ‘original source’ (if at all).

Is the public speaker’s stand correct and, if so, can anyone say who made the statement 9or near equivalent) first (if at all).

By: smiffy

smiffy — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:54:53 +0000

Not too late at all – perish the thought. The 3 is a reference to the answer ad 3d (i.e. What democratic countries can do….). This is one of those tricksy puzzles where the numerical references are sometimes a reference to another clue (as in this instance), and other times simply numbers (e.g. 1,4D).

By: TokyoColin

TokyoColin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:22:59 +0000

Probably too late but I don’t understand the blog’s explanation for 28ac. What does “three countries” have to do with ELECT. Spain/Latvia… doesn’t work.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:38:44 +0000

Thanks smiffy.
Pretty tough puzzle I thought,but once I twigged the quotation the rest went in pretty quickly.
Couldn’t find NUN BIRD in dictionaries but the wordplay was fair.HYGENICS and OATH were my favourites in a very good puzzle.
Enigmatist/Io/Nimrod possibly?